The Brookhaven leader., 1887-06-30
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
How the Cities of the Land Shall
be Regenerated.
The Alliance OF Dirt and InIquIty-CrIms
the oGspring OF Ignorance-Cleanlt-
mess and Compulsory Educa-
- ton the Only Remedies

sermon at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, took
the prevalence Of Dirt and Crime in the
cities as his subject, his text being:
And the men Of the city said unto Elisha Be
held, pray thee, the situation OF this city is
pleasant as my Lord seeth; but the water Is
nausht and the ground barren. And he said,
Bring me new oruse, and put salt therein.
And they brought Il to him. And he went
forth unto the spring OF the waters, and cast
the salt in there, and said Thus saith the Lord,
have healed these waters; there shall not be
from thence any more death or barren land. So
the waters were healed unto this day,-(H.
Kings IL, Ie-s2
Dr.. Tslmage said:
1t Is difficult to estimate how much Of
the pros perity and health of city are de-
pendent upon good water. The time
when, through well-laid pipes and from
safe reservoir, an abundance Of water
from Croton, or Ridgewood, or Schuyl-
kill, is brought Ito the city, is appropri-
ately celebrated with grafton and
pyrotechnic display. Thank God every
dav for clear, bright, beautiful sparkling
water, as it drops in the shower, or tos ses
up in the fountain, or rushes out at the
hydrant.
The City OF Jericho, notwithstanding
all the physical and commercial advan-
tages, was lacking in this important ele-
ment. There was enough water, but it
was diseased, and the people were crying
out by reason thereof. Elisha, the
prophet, comes to the rescue. He says:
"Get me new cruise; fill it with salt
and bring it to me-"
So the cruise of salt was brought to the
prophet, and see him walking out to the
general reservoir, and he takes that salt
and throws it into the reservoir, and 10 !
all the impurities depart, through a su.
pernatural and divine influence, and the
waters are good and fresh and clear, and
all the people clap their hands and lift up
their faces in the gladness. Water for
Jericho-clear, bright, beautiful, God
given wateri
At different times have pointed out to
you the fountains of municipal corrup-
ton, and this morning l propose to show
you what are the means of the rectitca-
uon of those fountains. There are four
or five kinds of salt that have a cleansing
tendency. So far as God may help me, I
shah bring cruise of salt to the work.
and empty it into the great reservoir of
municipal crime, sin and shame, lgnor-
ance and abomination.
In this work OF cleansing our cities
have hrst to remark that there is a work
for the broom and the shovel that nothing
else can do. There always has been an
intimate connection between iuiQuty and
dirt. The filthy parts of the great cities
are always the most iniquitous parts.
The cutters and the pavements of the
Fourth ward, New York. illustrate and
sym bolize the character of the people in
the Fourth ward.
The first thing that bad man does
when he is converted is thoroughly to
wash himself. There were, this morning,
the tn Hifarant hnr
thousands of men in proper apparel who,
before their conversion, were unfit in
their Sabbath dress. When on the Sab
bath l see man uncleanly in his dress,
my suspicious in regard to his moral
character are aroused, and they are al
ways well founded. So as to allow no ex-
cuse for lack of ablution, God has cleft
the continents with rivers and
lakes, and has sunk five
great oceans, and all the world
ought to be clean. Away, then, with the
dirt from our cities, not only because the
physical health needs an ablution but be-
cause all the great moral and religious
interests Of the cities demand it as posi-
tive necessity. filthy city always has
been and always will be a wicked city.
Through the upturning Of the earth for
great improvement our city could not be
the illimitabe dirt Of Brooklyn for the
last SIX months there is no excuse. 1t is
not merely a matter of dust in the eyes,
and mud for the shoes, .and of stencil for
the nostrils, but of morals for the soul.
Another corrective influence that we
would bring to bear upon the evils of our
great cities is Christian printing-press.
The newspapers Of any place are the
test of morality or immortality. The
newsboy who runs along the street with
roll of papers under his arm is n
tremendous force that can not be
turned aside nor resisted, aud at his
every step the city is elevated or degrad-
ed. This hungry, all devouring Ameri-
can mind must have something to read,
and upon editors and authors and book
publis hers and parents and teachers rest
the responsibility of what they shall read.
Almost every man you meet has book
in his hand or a new paper IN MS pocket.
What book Is it you have In your handi
What newspaper is it you have in your
pocket Minister may preach, reformers
may plan, philanthropists may toll for
the elevation of the suffering and the
criminal, but nth all the news papers Of
the land and all the book sellers of the
land set themselves against an iniqutt-
Gus literature-until then we shall b.
fighting against fearful odds.
Every time the cylinders OF our great
publishing houses turn they make the
earth quake. From them goes forth a
thought like an angel of light to feed and
bless the world, or like an angel Of dark
ness to smite it with corruption and SIN
and shame and death. May God by his
omnipotent spirit purify and elevate the
American printin cypress!
go on further and say that we must
depend upon the school for a great deal
of correcting influences. A community
can no more afford to have ignorant men
in its midst than it can afford to have un-
Gagged hyenas. Ignorance is the mother
of hydra-headed crime. Thirty-one per
cent of all the criminals of New York
State can neither read nor write. Intel
lectual darkness is generally the pre-
cursor of moral darkness.
/ know there are educated outlaws
men who through their sharpness OF in
tellect, are made more dangerous. They
use their fine penmanship in signing other
peoples names, ard their science in in
genlous burglaries, and their fine man
ners in adroit llbertiElSm. They go their
round of sin with well-cut apparel, and
dangling jewelry, and watches OF
eighteen carats, and kid gloves. They
are refined, educated, magnificent viii
lains But that is the exception. 1t is
generally the case that the Grim
NAL classes are as ignorant as
they are wicked. For the proof of
what say, go into the prisons and peni-